Lawyer promptly forwards file to avoid contentious client

Syracuse, NY - Edward Maddox was supposed to go on trial recently on charges he robbed three cab drivers. And Tony Belletier was supposed to be his lawyer.

But that changed when Maddox failed to make a court appearance and County Judge Tony Aloi issued a warrant for his re-arrest.

It didn't take long for police to find Maddox. But Belletier won't be by his side for any trial.

At his first post-bench warrant court appearance, Maddox began arguing with Belletier so Aloi agreed to assign a new lawyer to the case. When Don Kelly made his first appearance this week, he reported he had received Belletier's file and was ready to take over.

"I guess the incentive was I told him (Belletier) if he didn't get that file over to you, I would reassign him back onto the case," Aloi said with a big smile.

Kelly then asked to have Maddox released on the original $5,000 bail, claiming Maddox missed court only because he hadn't been told about the date. Assistant District Attorney Kari Armstrong reminded Aloi that Belletier reported losing contact with Maddox for more than a month before that court no-show.

Aloi ordered Maddox to remain in jail without bail. His new trial date is now Nov. 9.

Defense loses hard-to-pronounce legal argument
Defense lawyer Marsha Hunt and County Judge Tony Aloi had different views of the validity of charges against Hunt's client during a recent court appearance. They also had different pronunciations of the legal issue being argued.

Hunt was arguing that several charges against client Anthony Jones were "duplicitous." She pronounced duplicitous with a hard "C" sound.

Aloi countered that the charges may be multiplicitous, but were not really duplicitous. He dropped a syllable from the word, pronouncing it "duplishous."

Pronunciations aside, Hunt argued that the indictment was improper because charges of aggravated vehicular assault, vehicular assault and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting it all included more than one victim.

Aloi noted that was exactly how those specific statutes had been written, with more than one victim being a necessary element of the particular charges. The judge brought the legal argument to a close when he asked if Hunt would prefer to have a separate charge for each of the two victims, opening the door to possible consecutive sentences.

That's not what she was looking for and the case was adjourned for a pre-trial suppression hearing this week. Jones ended up pleading guilty instead and will get one sentence of 3 1/3 to 10 years in prison to cover the two victims he ran down with his vehicle while he was driving under the influence of drugs.

One lawyer may not be enough for repeat DWI defendant
County Judge Bill Walsh noted Richard Piper was no novice to the criminal justice system as Piper stood in court to be arraigned this week on a DWI charge.

Walsh said Piper hadn't seemed to learn anything from two prior convictions and a state prison sentence for the last one.

When Walsh asked to have the lawyers approach the bench for a conference, one of the two lawyers standing beside Piper noted his office apparently got mixed up over who was to be in court for the case.

"Both of you come up," Walsh responded. "He's going to need two lawyers."

After the brief bench conference, Walsh adjourned the case a week to let the defense lawyers share with Piper what had been discussed.